The basic goals of this proposed research are to develop a new, general approach to the synthesis of prostaglandins and prostaglandin analogs, and to develop other synthetic methods that will be of broad interest to investigators involved in prostaglandin synthesis. Several new contributions in this latter area involve new approaches to the problem of incorporating the C13-C20 carbon moiety of the prostanoid skeleton on to activated cyclopentone derivatives. Other new general synthetic methods will be involved with new techniques for protecting carbonyl and alcohol functions.